In January 2009, a twin engine jet aircraft that had recently taken off from a New York City area airport collided with a flock of geese. Numerous geese were sucked into the engines, causing both engines to fail, but the pilot maneuvered the aircraft into a safe landing on a river. Everyone on board survived this crash, with no serious injuries. Government agencies concluded that this crash was caused by the intake of birds into the engines. In general, there have been an increasing number of news reports about birds striking aircraft, and overall, the number of bird strikes has been increasing in recent years. Some of this increase is due, in part to additional protections for wildlife resulting in increased population, and the location of many airports near bodies of water where these birds are resident.
The Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) website “FAA Wildlife Strike Database” contains a summary of records kept by the FAA since 1990. The FAA indicates that it has recorded over 121,000 wildlife strikes between 1990-2010 for both civilian and military aircraft. The FAA states that 92% of these bird strikes to commercial aircraft have occurred at or below an altitude of 3500 ft above ground level, and that during the period from 2006 and 2010 there was an average of 26 strikes reported each day. The FAA indicates bird strikes are not a “new” event; Orville Wright reported a bird strike in 1905. The FAA and other governmental agencies keep track of reported bird strikes, and while the reporting form asks for aircraft and flight data, there is no specific field requesting whether the aircraft made contact with birds being overtaken by the aircraft, or by birds flying into the approaching aircraft. U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,545 (Meletiou) refers to a plane crash near Boston in the early 1960's that was caused by the ingestion of a flock of starlings, and discloses a deflector for aircraft engine intakes.
For the year 2010, the U.S. Air Force reported about 5,000 bird strikes; over 9,600 bird strikes were reported for civilian aircraft in the U.S. Large and jet powered aircraft are more subject to engine damage from ingestion of birds, while smaller fixed wing aircraft and helicopters are more prone to windscreen penetration, which can result in injury to pilots or others on board, and may also lead to a loss of control of the aircraft.
Many prior art devices to protect aircraft are passive systems, such as deflectors, engine screens, windshield screens or other types of shielding devices placed over a windshield, or strengthened engine components to protect the aircraft and/or engine, and are “actuated” when the aircraft encounters a foreign object. Embodiments of the present invention, in contrast, employ an active detection and protection system, to prevent the aircraft from being struck by a foreign object by removing that object from the flight path of the aircraft, either by destroying it or deflecting the foreign object out of the path of the aircraft.
Embodiments of the present invention are suitable for use on civilian and military aircraft. In addition to their use on fixed wing aircraft, such as propeller or jet planes, embodiments of the present invention could be adapted for use on rotor craft (also referred to as rotary-wing aircraft), such as helicopters, airframes that are capable of vertical take-offs and landings (such as, for example only, the Harrier and Osprey); unmanned aircraft such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (“UAVs”); or other aircraft.